Tag: cupcakes

baking

Son of Cookie Monster

wittychild

Last week, I celebrated my two-year anniversary at my job.  That’s right: for 731 days, give or take, I’ve been delighting and entertaining my coworkers with my very presence in the office.  Okay, maybe not.  And not that anyone else would have remembered the date, but I wanted to do something just a little festive.  I had some extra time one evening and decided that mini cupcakes were in order.

The conversation went something like this:

“I thought I’d do vanilla cupcakes with a pink frosting.  Maybe I can use some maraschino cherry juice for flavour.  Ooh, or that Dr. Pepper stuff I got!”  (At this point, I was picturing something all princess-y.)

“Oh.  But your chocolate ones are so good, have such a nice flavour.”

“Okay.  Sure.  I can do chocolate with a cherry or Dr. Pepper frosting.”

“Why don’t you do blue raspberry frosting again?  It tasted really nice.”

Okay, so I did the blue raspberry frosting again.  (It worked so nicely with the pale blue liners you can’t really see for the chocolate cake.)  I thought I was smart by dissolving my drink crystals in the almond milk before adding it to the frosting, but they didn’t provide me with a sufficiently intense flavour or colour, so I added a smidge of raspberry extract and some blue food colouring.  Maybe it was the addition of the extract, but it had almost a blue-bubblegum flavour this time.  They might lack the characterization of their Cookie Monster predecessors, but they hold a certain charm nonetheless.

My coworkers loved them!  Between 8:00 and 10:00, they managed to polish off 30 of the little suckers.

I still have to try Dr. Pepper frosting, though…

baking

“C” is for “cookie”

wittychild

The Oscar the Grouch cupcakes I made a few weeks back went over well with everyone who tried one – and I was so excited by the way the grass tip created his fur.  I couldn’t wait to try other Sesame Street characters!  I was pretty sure that Cookie Monster was going to be next on my list, because I’ve always felt a strange kinship with him.  My grammar may be better than his, but honestly, the reason I learned how to bake was to feed my cookie addiction.

While searching the bulk food store for some chickpea flour, I happened upon bins of flavoured drink crystals, including a vibrant blue-raspberry.  It was fate.  Yes!  Now I absolutely had to buy some, and mix them into my frosting instead of/in addition to blue food colouring, and I had to make Cookie Monster cupcakes post-haste!  This was going to be great!

Not, perhaps, a spitting image, but certainly recognizable.  My fatal mistake (I realize now) was adding in the drink crystals along with some food colouring after I had mixed all the other frosting ingredients and already had a nice, fluffy buttercream.  I had thought because the icing was “wet” – as in, not yet dried and hardened – that the crystals would dissolve.  They did not, at least not entirely.  And they might be miniscule, but that didn’t stop them from clogging up my grass tip.  After six incredibly frustrating cupcakes, including several attempts to clear and re-clear the holes in the tip using a toothpick or just unscrewing the coupler and rinsing the silly thing out with water, I got fed up, switched tips, and did this:

It may look and feel like a cop-out, sure, but I’ve always liked blue-and-brown as a colour combination, so it’s not that bad.  They’re still whimsical, just in a non-licensed way.

Oh, and in case you were curious: the drink crystals did impart a lovely blue-raspberry flavour that is noticeable without being overpowering.  I’ve learned from my mistake, though, and next time they’re being dissolved in the almond milk first before being mixed in.

baking

Where the air is free, but the cupcakes will cost you

wittychild

There’s something about the last week of June that just brings with it a certain magic.  For kids, school is almost out for the summer (and I freely admit to watching “Kamp Krusty” the other day and bemoaning that I no longer get to enjoy that last-day euphoria).  For adults, the long weekend is imminent; an extra day off work to celebrate your country with barbeques and street fairs.

In my dad’s case, he got the best of both worlds, since he decided to retire at the end of June.  I sighed, and told him what a lucky bum he was: it’s like graduating, only without the worries of university in the fall or finding a job.  Since he first announced his intentions, it’s been a running joke in our household that he’s going to turn into Oscar Leroy – with all this time on his hands, he’ll find all sorts of little things to complain about and generally become a crotchety old man.  Naturally, I thought this momentous occasion required some sort of festive dessert, although “crotchety old man” is really hard to convey in cupcake form.  (Just for kicks, try Googling “Oscar Leroy cupcakes”.  They don’t exist.)  So I did the next best thing:

It’s an Oscar, he’s grouchy…it’s not such a stretch, really!

I used the basic chocolate cupcake recipe (love it!) from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, and made a massive batch of buttercream to do the fur and eyebrows.  I finally got to use my grass tip!  I had bought a tube of black icing from Wilton to do the mouth and pupils, but when I went to do the first mouth I realized that, colour-wise, it was difficult to tell the icing from the cupcake, and so just left the mouth unfrosted.  Note: the eyes and tongue are both marshmallow and therefore are not vegan, but I was under time constraints and this was the path of least resistance.  If you have a little more time, the frosting could be further split and coloured to pipe on eyes and tongue.

My dad loved them!  So much so, in fact, that he was inspired to wear his Oscar the Grouch t-shirt the next day.  Fashion inspiration from cupcakes…strange.

Up next….Cookie Monster cupcakes – a Muppet after my own heart!

P.S. Happy Canada Day, everyone!

baking

You can’t spell “fibre” without… “brief”?

wittychild

This is probably the kind of thing that could get my citizenship revoked, but I hate Tim Horton’s.  Oh, sure, they used to be good, back when their donuts were actually baked on-site, fresh, in each individual store, before these dark days of par-baked pastries that are frozen and sent to the stores to be “finished off”; back when they focused on being a half-decent coffee and donut shop instead of expanding their lunch menu to include sandwiches that probably taste better from Subway, salty-yet-flavourless soups, and institutional-sized vats of (shudder) beef lasagna casserole.  Unfortunately, flash-frozen donuts and subpar lunch items seem to be the order of the day, and I no longer have any interest in them.  Also, their coffee smells like cat pee (and I live with both cats and Tim’s drinkers, so trust me on this one).  But I digress.

I had some oat bran left in the cupboard from my last adventure with the Applesauce-Oat Bran muffins from Veganomicon, and thought I ought to bake some muffins this weekend.  Last time, I made them pretty much according to the recipe, and added raisins.  This time, I had planned to add some dried cranberries, when my mom reminded me that there were oodles of fresh blueberries in the fridge.  Lightbulb moment!  What about a cranberry-blueberry-bran muffin, much like the ones found at the above-mentioned national treasure of a coffee chain?

Ha!  Tim’s can suck it!  Not only did these come out beautifully, they have almost half the calories of one of those flash-frozen abominations (based on a rough calculation using calorie counts for my individual ingredients, divided by twelve muffins).  I followed the recipe for the most part, increasing the cinnamon by 1/2 tsp and swapping out the cardamom for 1/2 tsp ground ginger.  I also added just a touch of molasses to give them a deeper flavour, and then folded in 1/3 cup dried cranberries and 1/2 cup fresh blueberries.  Now that’s a satisfying 174 calories!

But don’t worry – I haven’t gone totally health-food on everyone.  It was my turn for Bake Day at work last week; check out the margarita cupcake redux:

The minis are so cute; the public loves them; I may well spend the rest of my days making margarita cupcakes to slake the desires of friends and co-workers.

baking

You drink champagne and it tastes just like cherry cola…

wittychild

…c-o-l-a, cola…

This week’s baking endeavour was inspired by The Brown Eyed Baker, and her recipe for Cherry Coke Float Cupcakes.  My take on this is a somewhat modified version of her recipe; besides the no-eggs thing, whipped topping doesn’t really lend itself well to storing completed cupcakes, so I made a maraschino cherry juice-laced buttercream frosting to help carry the cherry theme through.

They turned out well, meaning that my beta test group is still alive and walking around – and technically, they’re fine; everything a cupcake should be – but I’m somewhat disappointed by the lack of Coke flavour, considering there’s Coke in both the cake batter and a light glaze underneath the frosting that served only to make my cooling racks and kitchen table sticky.

I suppose Coca-Cola syrup, the kind they use for fountain drinks, might provide a more concentrated flavour, or cola extract, if such a thing exists; however, if I do something like these again, I could see making my basic chocolate cupcake recipe instead and turning them into bona fide Black Forest cupcakes.  But…as a sweet dessert, they’re perfectly acceptable.

Happy Victoria Day, everyone!

baking

Drat this cupcake top!

wittychild

Questions that get really annoying after a while:

1. Where do you get your protein?

Actually, I daresay that most people who ask this are just genuinely curious and eager to learn, but after the twentieth time you’ve fielded this question…aargh.  Ever hear of legumes, whole grains, soy products?  Because I eat a well-rounded diet that consists of more than just french fries and Dr. Pepper, I’m fine.  Trust me.

2. Aren’t a muffin and a cupcake the same thing?

I can see where you might think that, but nooooo.  Technically speaking, a muffin is a quickbread, while a cupcake is just a small cake.  The mixing and baking instructions do vary somewhat.  Aren’t muffins also inherently healthier?  Well, no.  They can be – I’ve never seen a bran cupcake – but I made a batch of each yesterday and each recipe called for the same amount of sugar.  A quick visual breakdown:

This is a Mocha Chip Muffin courtesy of a recipe from the Post Punk Kitchen.  Unlike a cupcake, its top is slightly more domed (to wit, I’ve never heard anyone complain of the cupcake top protruding over the waistband of their jeans).

This is a variation on the Golden Vanilla Cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.  Its top is flatter, and, if you’re looking for a very basic way to tell them apart, it’s frosted, whereas muffins generally are not.  I’ve been known to eat naked cupcakes if I’m too lazy to make frosting, but really, it’s a cake.  It should be frosted.  Come on.

So remember, kids: flat n’ frosted = cupcake.  Round n’ naked = muffin.  Class dismissed.

baking

The lovers, the dreamers, and me.

wittychild

After a lengthy two-week-ish cupcake sabbatical, it should only make sense that I’d be up to my old tricks again.

But with a twist!

I’ve long been intrigued by the rainbow cakes (“Oh, that explains the title!”) that proliferate various DIY-type sites around the internet.  They looked perhaps a little fiddly, albeit not terribly difficult, and ooh…colourful!  It was a cool, cloudy, day today, and I decided that a little colour would improve things immeasurably.  With my trusty copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World – the Golden Vanilla Cupcakes recipe, if anyone’s trying this at home – and a few bottles of food colouring, I came up with these (and stained my thumb yellow in the process):

You can see their rainbow goodness right through the liners!

With a slight drizzling of icing, peeled and ready to eat.

You knew there had to be a cross-section, right?

The trickiest part was getting equal colour distribution.  One-sixth of a cupcake recipe doesn’t yield nearly as many generous spoonfuls as you might think, and the first seven or eight wound up with way more purple than the last few.  I tried to amend my spooning technique with the other five colours, but that didn’t quite work out.  I was initially bummed about that, but now…nah.  It just means that each and every one is unique.

baking

Say it with baked goods

wittychild

I’m afraid I don’t have a terribly exciting story this time.  A gentleman I know very generously supplied me with four 1:160 scale automobiles from his personal stash.  I was extremely grateful, and decided to…say it with baked goods.  A very vocal peanut gallery was rooting for the cappuccino cupcakes from (you guessed it) Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, which I prettied up with swirls of mocha buttercream and chocolate-covered espresso beans.

Although I’m not a huge fan of Michael’s, there is no denying that they stock some spiffy cupcake boxes.  The recipient was delighted with his unexpected sweets, and I had an excuse to bake…win-win!

(And yes, I do craft/bake/produce other things besides cupcakes, I swear!)

baking

Margarita Cupcakes – After Dark

wittychild

I remember now why I like quick, small crafty projects: instant gratification.  For example, right now I’m working on a rather large (14″ x 14″) needlepoint.  Although I’m genuinely loving every stitch, and it really is progressing at a reasonable clip, I still have nothing completed to show for my efforts.  Ditto my recovering project.  Waiting for my not-so-silent partner to hold up his end of things means I don’t yet have an awesome “finished” photo.  For someone who blogs about her crafty exploits, it can be frustrating.

Thank heavens for cupcakes.  Who doesn’t like foodporn photos of cute, tender little cups of love?

And look!  With a different finish than usual!  I usually follow the prescribed decorating from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World; that is, a demure little layer of icing spread evenly on top while coloured sugar coyly mimics the salted rim of a real margarita.  (This can be seen in an earlier post.)  Somehow, though, the fluffy piped swirls and haphazardly sprinkled sugar just scream, “Fiesta!”  Perfect, since I’ll be taking four to a coworker who has just a) turned the big 6-0 and b) announced her rapidly approaching retirement.

Public opinion will determine whether this flirty new approach sticks.  I’m sure my test subjects can hardly wait.

baking

Why don’t you make like a banana and split…

wittychild

…into a dozen delicious cupcakes!  Muahahaha!

*ahem*

I had had a hankering for these for a while, and had slowly been acquiring the ingredients necessary to churn out a batch.  When soy yogurt – *bing* – magically found its way into my fridge on Friday, I knew I was in the clear.

These are Banana Split Cupcakes from Kris Holechek’s The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes, and oh, lordy, they can make believers out of omnivores!

The picture doesn’t do them justice.  A moist vanilla cake studded with chopped maraschino cherries and bananas, mini chocolate chips, and crushed pineapple…heaven!  I actually wound up with 16 cupcakes instead of the alleged 12, but this is my own fault for not measuring my mix-ins as precisely as I could have.  (“Eh…that looks like 1/4 cup.”)  I topped them off with a basic vanilla buttercream piped into approximations of swirls, and sprinkled a few chopped peanuts on top for good measure.  They make a nice contrast to the sweet of the cupcake and icing.

The best part?  My cherries were not quite as thoroughly drained as they ought to have been, and imparted a lovely pale pink colour to the batter.  It wasn’t my intention to make Valentine’s cupcakes – I used the heart-print liners because they’re seasonal, but it wasn’t a deliberate attempt or anything – but I wound up with them anyway.